Pope Benedict XVI urged US Catholics to renew their faith and condemned the "tragic" sexual abuse of children by priests as he celebrated Mass before tens of thousands at a baseball stadium.
The pontiff was greeted by an enthusiastic roar from the crowd of 48,000 and joyous singing by four choirs led by celebrated tenor Placido Domingo, as he arrived at the new Washington Nationals ballpark in his "pope-mobile."
The faithful began arriving before dawn at the gates of the stadium, Washington's latest shrine to baseball opened last month which was transformed into a cathedral for the pope's first public Mass of his six-day US visit.
In brilliant spring sunshine, Benedict appealed for a new spirit of evangelism among the faithful to respond to America's "increasingly secular and materialistic culture."
On the decades-long pedophilia scandal, the pope said: "No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse."
But the Church was making amends, Benedict insisted, in dealing "honestly and fairly with this tragic situation and to ensure that children... can grow up in a safe environment."
The US Catholic Church plunged into its worst crisis in two centuries in 2002 when the archbishop of Boston confessed he had protected a priest who had sexually abused young members of his church -- opening a floodgate of thousands of similar abuse cases around the country dating back decades.
"I haven't followed all the controversial things. I just think it's great he's here," said Carolyn Hodgson, a 17-year-old student from nearby Potomac.
Her friend Jenna Hartin said the Mass was "a once-in-a-lifetime chance" to see the 81-year-old successor to John Paul II.
The enraptured faithful were to receive communion as 14 cardinals, 250 bishops and 1,300 priests joined the German pope for his outdoor Mass.
In his homily, Benedict said Catholics in the United States and around the world had to reinforce their own faith and seek new converts in responding to "signs of alienation, anger and polarization" in society at large.
"The challenges confronting us require a comprehensive and sound instruction in the truths of the faith," he said, decrying rising violence, looser morals, "and a growing forgetfulness of God."
The pope's message of universal faith was underlined by the presence at the Mass of a Sikh man in a turban, who sat in front of a group of Jewish men wearing skull-caps.
Opening the celebration, Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl reflected on America's rich racial and religious diversity. "All of us at the Mass reflect the breadth of this family," he said.
Bleary-eyed children who had risen at 5:00 am came with their families, packing the impressive ballpark along with the top hierarchy of US Catholicism, seminary students, and ordinary Americans from around the country.
Concession stands were mobbed, especially those selling official souvenirs marking Benedict's first papal visit to the United States, which began Tuesday with an official welcome from President George W. Bush.
Colonel Gary Studniewski, a US Army chaplain, said he came to the Mass to pray for the "stretched" men and women of the armed forces fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
"They can't be here. They're in harm's way but I can be here to pray for them. No one wants peace more than military personnel who see the horrors of war and the difficulties of so many people around the world," he said.
"We are grateful to the Holy Father for spreading a message of peace."
On Wednesday, on the first papal visit to the White House in three decades, Benedict urged Bush to prefer diplomacy to war as a way of resolving conflicts.
But aside from mentioning the plight of Iraqi Christians, he skirted mention of the Iraq war, on which the Bush administration and Vatican do not see eye to eye.
Later Thursday, Benedict planned to meet with Jewish representatives after an inter-faith gathering at the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington.
That, and a planned stop at a New York synagogue, appear aimed at quelling Jewish unhappiness over the revival of the 16th century Latin Rite Mass in which Catholics pray for the conversion of Jews.
Agence France-Presse - 4/17/2008 2:46 PM GMT
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